Sports Briefs

AGENCIES

Sun, Sep 04, 2005 - Page 22

■ RowingKiwi grabs gold medal

Mahe Drysdale edged Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway in the final of the men's single sculls in Kaizu, Japan, yesterday to capture one of four gold medals for New Zealand at the World Rowing Championships. Drysdale clocked a time of 7 minutes, 16.42 seconds at Nagaragawa Regatta Course. Tufte finished second in 7:18.34 for the silver medal while Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic took the bronze in 7:21.12. Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater cruised to victory in the men's pairs with a time of 6:52.51 to give New Zealand another gold.

■ Rugby

Serevi to coach in Fiji

Sevens superstar Waisale Serevi has been signed to a full-time coaching position with the Fiji Rugby Union and will likely accompany the Fiji national team on its end-of-year tour to Europe. Serevi, who is regarded as one of the world's greatest sevens players, has signed a one-year contract which will see him working with Fiji's national sevens and 15 teams, the union announced yesterday. The Fiji union recently decided for financial reasons not to continue the contract of Paul Feeney, who has worked as backline coach under Fijian national 15s coach Wayne Pivac. The union said it would seek a local appointee and Serevi has been chosen for the job. Serevi said he welcomed the chance to develop a new career in rugby.

■ Formula one

Fans want more passing

Fans have demanded more passing in Formula One, and the sport's governing body says new technology could make it happen. Max Mosley, president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), announced a partnership with chipmaker AMD in Monza, Italy on Friday after a survey showed 94 percent of fans want more overtaking. "We didn't realize how important [passing] was to the fans until recently," Mosley said. He said he was working off responses from 93,000 questionnaire about the sport. Mosley said AMD would help the FIA develop aerodynamics for cars that would enable more passing with little reduction in speed. "AMD is making available to us an immensely powerful computer," Mosley said. He said the computer could "run a number of programs" which would be equivalent to crews testing with two Formula One cars.

■ Cycling

Heeswijk takes Stage 7

Dutch cyclist Max Van Heeswijk won the seventh stage of the Tour of Spain in a sprint finish in Vinaroz, Spain on Friday, while Spain's Roberto Heras remained the overall leader. Discovery Channel's Van Heeswijk covered the long and flat 212.5km leg between Teruel and Vinaroz in northern Spain in 5 hours, 21 minutes, 21 seconds. Germany's Erik Zabel finished second and Italy's Alberto Ongarato came third. Italy's top sprinter, Alessandro Petacchi, who won stages Monday and Tuesday, had to withdraw after getting a puncture in the final stretch.